When the Yankees’ season ended with a playoff loss – sparked in part by another brutal Nick Swisher postseason – I would’ve bet at least $8 that Torii Hunter would’ve wound up in a Yankees uniform in 2013.

Hunter would be a modest purchase, relative to the likes of Josh Hamilton, Michael Bourn and B.J. Upton. He was excited by the prospect of taking his talents to the Big Apple, according to a source.

But the Yankees keep explaining to us that their 2014 payroll will be lower than $189 million, and the way they went about the Hunter sweepstakes is the latest proof.

Hunter wasn’t going to sign a one-year contract. His market was too robust, his 2012 numbers too impressive. So the Yankees stayed in the loop with Hunter’s agent Larry Reynolds, until the very end, yet as Dan Martin reported today, they never made a formal offer.

The Tigers like to get their business done quickly, so does Hunter and Detroit was one of three teams (along with the Yankees and Texas) that the veteran targeted at the beginning of this process. Good move by the Tigers, building positive momentum after their great 2012 season that featured a disappointing ending.

My Post teammate Joel Sherman mentioned, last week at the general managers’ meetings, the prospect of something like a Scott Hairston-Raul Ibanez platoon in rightfield for 2013. After what went down with Hunter, that’s looking even more likely.

During his long run with the Yankees, GM Brian Cashman occasionally thought about leaving the Yankees for a club with less of a financial advantage. Partly because of the desire for change, but also partly to prove that he could function well with less room for error.

Given that the industry is headed north — the Dodgers will almost certainly be number one in payroll in ’13 — and the Yankees are headed south, Cashman is getting that opportunity without even having to move his office.